Complete, Single-Horizon Quantum Corrected Black Hole Spacetime

We show that a semi-classical polymerization of the interior of Schwarzschild black holes gives rise to a tantalizing candidate for a non-singular, single horizon black hole spacetime. The exterior has non-zero quantum stress energy but closely approximates the classical spacetime for macroscopic black holes. The interior exhibits a bounce at a microscopic scale and then expands indefinitely to a Kantowski-Sachs spacetime. Polymerization therefore removes the singularity and produces a scenario reminiscent of past proposals for universe creation via quantum effects inside a black hole.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures. A shortened version with some new reference

The 5-D Choptuik critical exponent and holography

Recently, a holographic argument was used to relate the saturation exponent, $\gamma_{BFKL}$, of four-dimensional Yang-Mills theory in the Regge limit to the Choptuik critical scaling exponent, $\gamma_{5d}$, in 5-dimensional black hole formation via scalar field collapse \cite{alvarez-gaume}. Remarkably, the numerical value of the former agreed quite well with previous calculations of the latter. We present new results of an improved calculation of $\gamma_{5d}$ with substantially decreased numerical error. Our current result is $\gamma_{5d} = 0.4131 \pm 0.0001$, which is close to, but not in strict agreement with, the value of $\gamma_{BFKL}=0.409552$ quoted in \cite{alvarez-gaume}.Comment: 11 pagers, 2 figure

Higher Dimensional Choptuik Scaling in Painleve Gullstrand Coordinates

We investigate Choptuik scaling in the spherically symmetric collapse of a massless scalar field in higher dimensions using Painleve-Gullstrand (P-G) coordinates. Our analysis confirms the presence in higher dimensions of the cusps in the periodic scaling relationship recently observed in four dimensional collapse. In addition, we address the issue of the asymptotic behaviour of the critical exponent as the number of spacetime dimensions gets large. Our results are consistent with earlier work suggesting that the critical exponent monotonically approaches 1/2 in this limit.Comment: 11 pages, 5 figure